George Soros and his funding projects

Last summer, the Soros Fund announced it was returning some $1 billion to investors and would cease to operate as a hedge fund and would convert to a family office. The switch enabled the Soros Fund to avoid the March 30 deadline for registering as an investment manager with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The poor performance came in a year when the average hedge fund declined about 5 percent in 2011.

The Quantum Fund also took a big writedown on a $200 million investment it has with Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Management hedge fund, something Reuters previously has reported. Harbinger fell about 47 percent as Falcone’s big bet on building a wireless network called LightSquared appears to be faltering.